Fire-escape



E. C. DALKE.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-30, 19m.

1,357,962, Patented Nov. 9, 1920.

Spokane,. in the county of UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD C. DALKE, OF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNOR 0F ONEFHALETO GODFBED HAMP, 0F METALINE FALLS, WASHINGTON.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented l\lov. 9, 1920.

Application filed April 30, 1918. Serial 110. 231,605.

To all whom it may concerns Be it known that I, EDWARD G. DALKE, a citizen of the United State s residing at Spokane and State of Washington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire- Escapes, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in fire escapes involving the use of rope brakes of the tortuous and grip type, with a rope.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of a device of this character that may be carried with facility by the traveling public, and be quickly applied and made ready for use when required, and which will be effective and eflicient in performing the functions for which it is intended.

The invention is of that type in which a braking device is applied to a dangling rope and the device is permitted to slide over the rope under the weight of the person descending, the necessary braking being applied, frictionally, to prevent --rapid or too rapid descent or fall of the person using the device. By the utilization of the device according to the present invention a second application may readil be provided for and the device, to 'this enc, may be quickly detached from the rope and is ready for a second service if needed. Certain novelJ combinations and arrangements of parts are utilized to render the operation and con struction of the device quite simple, and the minimum number of parts together with the compact arrangement thereof, render the apparatus facile and durable in use.

In the accompanying drawings one complete example, and an additional exemplification of the device, are illustrated, constructed according to the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles of the invention, and showing how the device may be used either for a person to grasp in the hand while descending, or to which a body harness may be attached to support the person descending.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing the device in use as a fire escape and a person escaping from the building supposed to be on fire.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the device, partly broken away, for convenience of illustration.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, from the opposite side of the device, showing the rope in full lines. 7

I Fig. 4: is a face or edge .view of the body of the device, the friction lever omitted.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view at the lower end of the device showing the looking button engaging the friction lever bar.

Fig. 6 is a side view of a body harness that may be used in conjunction with the apparatus as shown. I

The invention in its preferred form is a device of relatively small dimensions adapted to be carried in a grip or traveling bag, and is also comparatively light in weight, involving. in its construction, essentially, the rounded metallic channeled bar 1 having at its lower end a closed ring or sleeve 2, and at its upper end an open ring or guide sleeve 3. The upper open ring has therein an inclined slot 4 and an exterior diagonal groove 5, the latter to accommodate the turn or kink 6 in the rope 7 and the former to permit the removal of the rope from the ring to straighten out the kink or turn so that the device may be ready for use again without being entirely removed from the rope.

In conjunction with the channel bar 1 forming the body of the device, a friction lever bar 8 pivoted to said channeled bar is also used, arranged parallel with the channel bar and fashioned with a projecting lug 9 that is grooved eXteriorly, and perforated for the pivot pin 10 which is also passed through the two perforated ears 11 on the channeled bar 1. Adjacent the pivot point of these parts, the channeled bar is recessed as at 12 and this curved depression accommodates the rope as it is guided by the grooved lug 9.

Directly below the pivot point and in close proximity thereto is provided a friction boss or lug 13 on the lever bar 8 and this lug is adapted to frictionally engage and ride over the surface of the rope 7 as the device through its channeled bar slides down the rope. Due to the close proximity of the boss to the pivot point or fulcrum, the leverage is great and the lever bar, when grasped in the hand causes the boss or lug to frictionally engage the rope to retard the movement of the device on the rope or to stop it altogether, if desired. The retarding action 01' braking action is accomplished through the turn or kink at the top oi the device, but the boss 13 is depended upon to provide the required *friction and render the device operative.

In order to hold the lever bar in closefrictional contact through its boss, with the rope a turn button 14 is pivoted on the ring 2 at the "lower end of the channel"bar,and this button is adapted to engagereitherof the sockets 15 or 16 near the lower end of the lever bar to retain-the bar in :position. The sockets :are 01": diii'erent depths, and therefore when the button is turnedtorone or the other socketst-he lever:is appliedwith differentdegrees of friction. Arhand guide 17 is provided for thezlever bar so that when the device is :graspedby. the hands this guide assists in the hand-hold. The'iutility ofthe device .is apparent, it being only necessary to state that :with the :rope looped around the open ring 3 and passed through iithe channeled bar under the lever, the device may be .graspedwith both hands, below the pivot point, and then the device ispermitted to slide down the rope,=thespeed ofdescent being governed by the pressure ofthelug on the rope as the device slides, and-this pressure, if necessary, may be --varied iby IreT' leasing or partially "releasing the lever, or by more tightly .gnaspingthe channeled bar andlever in both hands.

lVhen the device is to be used for bodily supporting a person, the loop 18 is utilized,

-the-strap 1-9 of the harnessQO being passed through 'f'theloopand-the harness, which is .thus suspended from the device, may be used to support those who cannot support,

themselves by their hands holding upon the device.

The sizetofttheudevice is such that it may readily be grasped by the hands, and the hands are protected so that they cannot comein contact with the iropezas :the device slideslover :the L'I'QPG, and the device .may readily 119.6 detached from the turn or kink (but-' -not fromthe rope) and used againby freeing :the kink through the -5Sl0t 4:,in the upper-wring. 1

I clairn- Z a :The combination :in a :travelingrdevice for use upon :rope ifire escapes, of a :channeled bar, a :friction leverbar .parallelwith and pivoted to said channeled bar, having below said ,pivot aninwardly projecting friction lug, H31 h3111d ;,guide =Idevice below said lug, aclosed-ring. at-the bottom of the channeledlbar, and =a'turn button fast uponsaidring cooperating with sockets at the bottom of the friction lever in frictional {engagement with the rope.

testimony whereof Laifix my signature.

iiEDWARD O. CDALKE. 

